


Got a Name, Shinie?

by creativeone298



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7601812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creativeone298/pseuds/creativeone298
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Hardcase-centric story focusing on his meeting Jesse and Kix, as well as his becoming a part the 501st.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hardcase was honored to have gotten into the five hundred and first legion, and he walked around with his squad, as well as two or three others as they got shown around the Resolute and into their quarters. His squadmates took the beds that lined up with each other’s, like he knew they would, and he got put next to a bed that was already occupied. He hoped he could make a new friend, and he smoothed the sheets down as he popped it out like the ones that they had on Kamino. He tested the bed and found that it wasn’t any more or less comfortable, which would probably mean some restless nights if he didn’t exhaust himself during the day.   
His squad went to check out one of the training rooms, making it very clear that he was not invited. Hardcase didn’t feel like tagging along now that he didn’t have to, so he walked in the opposite direction, not really caring where he was going, but if he hit a refresher along the way, he’d do his business. Dinner was in thirty minutes, so he figured he could get away with some exploring.   
He looked at the general mess of the ship. Kamino was almost spotlessly white, but there were skid marks on the floor, dents in the walls, slight imperfections that made Hardcase feel more at ease than he figured he would be. His footsteps didn’t echo because there were other clones walking and chatting with each other. He felt a grin growing on his face. He was going to like it here, even if he had fewer friends than he did on Kamino.   
One of the older clones must have caught him looking around because as he was staring at an interesting scratch on the wall, he felt a tap on the shoulder.  
“You lost, shinie?” he asked in a bored tone that Hardcase was instantly familiar with, the tone where nobody wanted to give him the time of day, let alone listen to him for more than a minute.   
“Nah, just looking around the ship. It’s my first day and I’m really excited that my squad and I got i-” Hardcase started, but the older clone spoke over him.  
“Listen, kid, I know that they told you the the five oh’ first is an exclusive club, but we just had some major losses on Teth. They brought you boys in to fill the space.”  
Hardcase softened a bit. “I heard about Teth. It’s great you survived though,”  
“My best friend, all my squadmates, and even most of my enemies, died that day. I am damn lucky, but it isn’t great.”   
Hardcase’s gaze sunk to the floor as he chewed over the man’s statements. His gaze shot back up at the older clone as he realized something about the first statement.  
“Did you just say that I’m probably not good enough to be here? When you said that bit about ‘fill the space?’”  
“I guess. Listen, we just got more than half the damn legion replaced with kriffing newbies and most of us are still hurting from earlier. Don’t expect us to be in a good mood.”  
“My squad and I worked hard to get here! I’m not taking this shit from you.” Hardcase said, looking into his eyes.  
Hardcase reeled back as he got slapped in the face.  
“You better learn to take shit from your elders, kid.”   
Hardcase glared at him and got ready to reel back and return the love when something got the better of him.   
“Just you wait, you’re going to see me wearing that blue paint and fighting on the front lines, and then you’ll know that I was ready.”   
Hardcase expected him to turn away, and he was getting ready to do the same when he saw the older clone crack a smile.  
“Got a name, shine?”  
Hardcase raised an eyebrow, wondering what brought on the change in mood. “Hardcase.”  
The older clone snorted. “Name’s Slate. You’re interesting, either gonna be dead tomorrow or come out with other guys knowing your name.”  
Hardcase didn’t know how to respond, so he lamely waved as Slate walked away.   
As he saw the sign for the refresher, he was about to go in when he heard another voice behind him.  
“For a second, I really thought he was going to fight you.”  
Hardcase whipped around to see another shinie.  
“Yeah, same here. I’m Hardcase, and you are…”  
“Jesse. My squad’s about to go to mess, what about yours?”  
Hardcase shrugged and shifted around.  
“I don’t know, they sort of abandoned me. I talk a bit too much, you know? Well, maybe a lot bit too much, maybe that’s why they didn’t want to go with me, but that’s okay because I already met Slate and I met you too!”  
Jesse laughed, “Slow down Hardcase! Want to sit with me?”  
Hardcase’s eyes widened, “Yeah, sure! But first I gotta piss. I almost did already when Slate slapped me and I started thinking we’d fight.”  
Jesse rolled his eyes and walked into the ‘fresher. The two didn’t talk as they did their business, but Hardcase was looking forward to getting to know Jesse, he seemed pretty cool.  
As the two walked out, the two swapped stories on how their testing was, what their squads were like, and what they wanted to do now that they were out of training.  
“Well, mostly I want to blast battle droids to pieces,” Hardcase laughed.  
“Same here, wipe out the seps, bring peace to the galaxy,” Jesse replied. “I really think the Republic is doing a great thing, bringing freedom to these systems. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”  
Hardcase hummed in approval and nodded.   
As the two got into line, Hardcase looked at the food and rolled his eyes.  
“Some things don’t change between here and Kamino.”  
“Damn right, the food looks just as disgusting as it did back home,” Jesse said, watching as some plopped onto a tray.  
“Oh, looks like my squad saved me a seat,” Jesse continued, waving Hardcase over.  
He walked over to see four guys already laughing and one punching the other before shaking his wrist to recover from punching the armor.   
“Got room for one more?” Jesse asked, looking at his squad expectantly.   
They nodded and scooted over to give Hardcase room. Hardcase thanked them enthusiastically and began eating. Once they’d all finished, they prolonged some of their free time at mess.   
“Okay new guy, now we have to know your name,” one of the clones said, grinning.  
“Name’s Hardcase, and you guys are?”  
“My name’s Ric, the guy in the corner’s name is Smiley, guy next to him is Bug, you know Jesse already, and the one to my left is Enie.”   
“Ric and Jesse, huh? Two pretty normal names,” Hardcase said, looking at the two.  
“Ric is short for ricochet, but someone might have already been named that, we don’t know. Besides, Ric is shorter anyway.” Enie explained.   
After dinner, Hardcase suggested checking out the training facilities, and Jesse tagged along.  
“Ric and Smiley have always been really close,” Jesse explained, “Ric probably would have come with us except Smiley likes to sit around and mope a lot. Ric goes on walks with him to keep any lethargy from happening.”  
Hardcase nodded.   
“You aren’t one of those spotters that insists on shoving his crotch in the weightlifter’s face, right?” Hardcase asked, putting enough weight on the barbell for him to warm up with.  
“Nah, I don’t--wait, do you train a lot? That’s more than most of my squad uses to warm up.”  
Hardcase got under the bar and shrugged up at Jesse. “I’m the one with the Z-6, so I need more upper-body strength than your average clone. I also like working out, keeps me busy.”  
They didn’t talk much as they exercised, but they silently went until they maxed themselves out on the bench press and went to the leg press to work the rest of their bodies.  
Jesse glanced at the clock on the wall and got up.  
“Hey, Hardcase, we need to get to sleep, it’s almost nine, and the refreshers are going to be crowded if we don’t hurry up and shower.”  
Hardcase nodded and began to walk out of the training room.  
“Damn, that was fun! Glad we worked ourselves out like this before tomorrow, that way we’ll be in top shape,” he said, smiling at Jesse.  
“If we’re not hurting in the morning, that is. I hope we didn’t work too hard; I know that I didn’t cool down like I’m supposed to.”  
Hardcase shrugged, “It’ll go away eventually.”  
They made their way to the refresher, before the rush like Jesse predicted.   
As they walked out of the refresher, Jesse turned to Hardcase.  
“Listen, where do you sleep? I know your name, but we’re a bit hard to recognize without any paint, tattoos, or haircuts.”  
“I’m planning on changing my appearance pretty soon, but I sleep in bunk 57C, how about you?”   
“189D, up on top and right in the corner,” Jesse said.  
“See you tomorrow!”   
Hardcase climbed up to his bunk and hoisted himself in, hoping that the night would be short and looking forward to the day ahead.


	2. Chapter 2

When the wake-up call was broadcasted throughout the facility, Hardcase groaned, but pushed his bed out anyway. He wanted to get to the refresher as soon as possible and he hated lines. When he looked to his left, he nearly did a double take.  
“Slate? Wow, small ship after all,” Hardcase said.  
“You’re that shinie I met yesterday, Hardcase, right? Damn, figures you’d be a morning person.”  
Hardcase shook his head and climbed down to the floor. He figured he was making progress with Slate, even if the man was a massive grump.  
The man kept pace with him on the way to the bathroom, and Hardcase figured that they must have the same thoughts about using the facilities early.  
As Hardcase finished with his morning routine, he went to Jesse’s bed, only to find it unoccupied. He asked around, and apparently Jesse’s squad had already gone to breakfast, which left Hardcase to contend with his own.  
Hardcase knew he could catch up to his squad and ran down the hallway in order to.  
“Mornin’, Hardcase,” said Vun. Hardcase considered Vun his best friend in the squad, even if he knew that Vun was better friends with Rind.  
He saw his other squad members’ shoulders slump and their conversation turn more inward.  
“Hey Vun, what’s up?”  
“Nothing much, we just walked around last night and got up. Speaking of, where were you?”  
“Met a guy named Jesse, he’s pretty great.”  
Vun nodded approvingly.  
“Don’t scare him away,” Rind joked, and the rest of the squad, including Hardcase, laughed with him.  
The rest of breakfast was wrought with tension, despite the the squad making jokes and laughing with each other. Something was in the air, and it lingered heavily, even the more experienced clones could sense it, with so many new troops going in for their first battle that day.  
Sure enough, they were all called to their respective gunships and shuffled in. Hardcase and his squad looked excitedly at each other. He could tell Vun was nervous, he was standing almost ramrod still, and he could tell Rind saw too because he moved in to comfort him.  
“You ready for this, Hardcase?”  
He chuckled, looking at Kav. They certainly didn’t have the best history; Kav’s by-the-book style had bought them credit with the Kaminoans, but Hardcase’s gung-ho approach had given him the favor of the bounty hunters. They had butted heads a lot, and Kav had made no secret of his annoyance with Hardcase, but the two of them were always the most ready for a fight, and they respected each other for that.  
“Hell yeah I am. Let’s blow those tinnies to pieces.”  
Kav gave him a grin and shrugged. “You were always good at that, second only to annoying the shit out of me.”  
“You’re gonna eat it because you constantly have your head up your ass.”  
Kav punched him in the arm and Hardcase hit him back.  
“Leave it to karking Hardcase to start a fight before a battle,” said Dva.  
Kav, Hardcase could tolerate. Dva, he could not fucking stand. If he knew anyone who thought more highly of themselves, and with so low a threshold for even a little excitement on the battlefield, he’d have to tell the Kaminoans there was a fucking defect.  
“Kav started it, and also, don’t tell me that you still think a bit of ball busting is a fight.”  
“Stuff it Hardcase, you’re just making things more tense-”  
“Listen, Dva, you can cork it because all I was doing was making nice with Kav until you decided to butt your ugly head into the conversation.”  
“We all look the same, dumbass, you look just as ugly as I do,” Dva retorted.  
“Can all of you shut the hell up?” Vun asked. Were it anyone else, Hardcase would have told them to fuck off, but since it was Vun, he clamped his jaw shut.  
“Whoever said that has the right fucking idea,” a clone whose armor was blue said.  
After that, there were no words to fill the uncomfortable silence that had been created. Hardcase knew only one thing. He was going to run to the front and let his destiny carry him from there.  
When the gunship dropped them off, Hardcase didn’t hesitate. The second they were told to run, he bolted to join the fray. He didn’t want to hear if his squad was calling his name.  
The front lines were more chaotic than he could have imagined. He ducked out of the way of red lasers and joined in the ranks of the blue, firing his weapon in wide arcs, decimating battle droids. He felt the adrenaline swell within him, as he fired endlessly. He ran, feeling the springy ground under him destabilizing Republic and Separatist troops alike, felt the stifling humidity make it harder to breathe. He didn’t care; he just wanted to make the droids scrap heaps and finish this battle quickly. He felt the familiar kick of his gun, realizing that it was hard to hit a moving target while also sparing his brothers. He suddenly wondered how many men fell victim to friendly fire and pushed the thought out of his head.  
His rush screeched to a grinding halt as the man next to him fell to the ground, his chest still smoking. Even through his helmet, he smelled death, and in that moment, he felt like he wanted to throw up. Hardcase didn’t know him, but he still felt a sense of brotherhood, he had to. However, he couldn’t stop moving, he had to keep going to keep himself alive, but now his lasers weren’t just fueled by his excitement, but by his anger. He had to avenge his dead brothers, the one on the ground, the ones that would be, and his own future corpse. As he blasted away, he realized how some of the older clones could get the way they were.  
He guessed that he and the rest of the guys near him were too blinded by zeal to see the fucking huge shell careening in their direction, only they were lucky enough to be within “injury” radius of the blast, and not “dead”. All he remembered was getting thrown in the air, landing straight on his head, and the world going black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Dva's name is not pronounced like D.va's, it's pronounced with the "d" and "v" making one sound together and a long "a" sound
> 
> Also, Kav, Vun, and Rind are all named after watermelon.


	3. Chapter 3

Hardcase woke up to find his helmet off and somebody feeling his wrist for his pulse. He opened his eyes and groaned, realizing that whatever disgusting mess he’d had for breakfast was breaking for the surface. He vomited to his left, coughing and spluttering.   
“Sorry about puking my guts out,” he said, balking at how weak his voice sounded. He’d thrown up before, but he’d only blacked out once, and never like this.   
“Don’t say that, your guts are still in there, trust me,” the medic said, rapping Hardcase’s armor lightly.  
“You’re funny, what’s your name?”   
“You’ve got a concussion, just spilled your breakfast on the ground over there, and what you’re concerned about is my name?”   
Hardcase nodded and regretted it immediately, putting his head back on the ground. The medic groaned and pushed lightly on his chest as if telling him to stay there.  
“My name is Kix, and you are?”  
“Hardcase.”  
“Wonder why,” Kix said sarcastically. “Most of these guys out by the bomb were seasoned troopers, and you, a shinie, go waltzing in with them like it’s not your first day?”  
Hardcase chuckled under his breath, “and they trust a new medic to patch us all up? What if you wind up sewing my arm where my leg should be?”  
“That’s only if your limbs get amputated, which might happen if you don’t shut up and let me work on the other men,” Kix warned, but his heart wasn’t into it, Hardcase could tell. He snorted in response, but stopped talking.   
Kix worked on him for a while, and he swore that with the technology that the republic was packing, all he’d need to heal the concussion was a good night’s sleep.   
“Just put this on, and don’t take it off. You’ll be sleeping in the medial tent tonight just in case, but I can already tell you’re gonna be restless.”  
“Battle’s over, I assume, why can’t we go?”  
“Some men are still cleaning up, and don’t try standing up to join them, the ones who are physically able to clean are doing it, and you, as well as the others knocked by the blast, need rest,” Kix said.  
They continued on like that until Hardcase associating a harsh warmth with Kix, who he knew for sure now was his favorite medic, even if he was the only one he had met so far.   
He’d finally felt good enough to walk to the medical tent at the camp a short distance away, where a medical droid applied a patch to his head, explained that it was for the concussion, and at that point he fell asleep, comforted by the fact that he was finally safe.  
Hardcase woke up when he heard the echo of the wake-up call through the camp, even though the medics had put the tent farther away from the others so that the injured could get some rest. He figured that he could get up with the other troopers until a medical droid implored him to lie back down at the very least, to which he grumbled that he was only wasting time.  
He waited for what felt like ages, counting the number of times the light faintly flickered and made the shadows on the wall dance.   
Kix went back to check on him.  
“Hey, you’re Hardcase, right?”  
Hardcase confirmed that it was him and smiled at Kix.  
“‘Bout time someone showed up.”  
“Sorry, lots of patients. Anyway, my shift ends in a few minutes; got up hours ago, but I was wondering if you wanted to catch the tail end of breakfast with me?”  
Hardcase nodded enthusiastically. “Does that mean I can get up now?”  
Kix grinned. “Doctor’s orders.”  
Hardcase practically lept out of bed, only to remember that he wasn’t wearing his armor.  
“Uh, did they put my armor anywhere?”  
“Right, your armor should be to the left of your mattress.”  
“Thanks, Kix!” Hardcase said a bit too loudly.  
Kix laughed and then shushed him. “Other patients are trying to sleep, Hardcase!”  
Hardcase got changed and joined Kix in a minute.  
“Hey, did I hear Hardcase’s name?” came a smooth voice from behind him.  
Kix looked at him suspiciously. “How’d you make friends so fast?”  
“Dunno who it is,” Hardcase said to Kix, “Hey, can you tell me who you are? Can’t recognize your voice yet,” he called.  
“It’s Jesse!” he yelled back, and Kix had to drag Hardcase to him so he wouldn’t wake the entire medial tent up.  
“You know my name now, what’s yours?” Jesse said, turning to Kix.  
Kix stuck out his hand. “Name’s Kix, I’m a medic. You a member of Hardcase’s squad?”  
“Nah, just met him yesterday. I saw him when he was about to get his ass kicked, you must have met him when he actually got what was coming to him.”  
“He got something alright, a concussion. I see you’re a responsible soldier who didn’t injure himself in the first battle?” Kix teased, slapping Jesse’s shoulder.  
“Just lucky to be alive, I guess,” Jesse said more quietly.   
“Oh, what happened?” Kix said gently. He gave Hardcase a warning look to shut up, which he took. Clearly Kix was handling it better than he could.  
“Ric, one of my closest friends, he died in that battle. Smiley’s devastated, especially since Enie died too,” Jesse said, his voice catching in his throat.  
“I’m sorry,” Kix and Hardcase said in unision.  
“Ric seemed like a good guy,” Hardcase offered, because there wasn’t much else he could do.  
“Yeah, Ric was great, he was the pillar, and I don’t know what I’ll do.” Kix patted Jesse on the back and soothed him.   
After Jesse stood there in silence for a while, Kix turned to the hallway.  
“Come on, we’ve got to get to mess. You feel better after you’ve eaten, both physically and mentally,” Kix said, pointedly looking at the two.  
The two walked along after him, looking ahead. They didn’t say anything until they sat on the ground, wolfed down their food in less than five minutes, and just sat there, staring at the terrain.  
“So,” Hardcase said after they’d spent a good two minutes studying the sky, “I think that we’ve earned the right to paint our armor after this.”  
Jesse and Kix looked at each other, as if expecting the other to react, but when Jesse saw Kix remain neutral, he broke into a grin.  
“Yeah, I guess that we do deserve that now. You guys planning to get tattoos?”  
Hardcase and Kix both nodded.  
“I’m planning on getting ‘the only good droid is a dead one’. I guess that I didn’t really see the power of the Seppies until I saw this, and, well, we sustained heavy losses. Lots of new guys straight off of Kamino plus a bunch of dejected soldiers is not a good formula. Rumor among the older medics has it that some were suicidal. I don’t want this to happen, or at least make it stop soon,” Kix said, gripping his thigh plate hard.  
Hardcase and Jesse nodded sympathetically.  
“Yeah, I was thinking. I want to get something to do with the Republic. I guess that’s what I can fight for, even if all my brothers die.”  
Hardcase or Kix didn’t say a word. They didn’t need to.  
“So, what about you, Hardcase? Any tattoos?”  
“Yeah, I’m gonna, but it’s nothing special like your guys’. I’m gonna shave my head, get some lines down my face, probably on my body too. I had the design, I just needed the color, and now that I’m in the five oh first, it’s blue.”  
“You rhymed,” Kix laughed, and soon it caught on to Hardcase, after which Jesse couldn’t help himself either. The three laughed like there wasn’t a war raging around them, and like they wouldn’t be called out to help clean the battlefield and look for more bodies soon.   
They got called to clean up, and a dark presence loomed as they found more corpses, weapons to recycle, kicked over droids, or what were left of them, and tried not to trip on the spongy ground that they all grew to hate.  
Hardcase didn’t mind the work as much as some. At least his hands were occupied, which meant that he didn’t have to succumb to his boredom, which meant thinking about his own mortality. So he worked with the rest of the men, wanting to exhaust himself.   
After the long day, the men walked back to the camp, grateful to plunk down their stuff and talk for a short while.  
He walked back to the tent where the medics had set up, and after asking around, he found Kix, who was available for the time being. The two of them went to go find Jesse, who wasn’t far, seeing as he’d also gone to the medical tent to look for them.   
“We’re really going to need to shave our heads soon if we want to be recognized,” Jesse said.  
“We?” Hardcase asked playfully.  
“Yeah, decided I’m going to get this huge Republic cog, right here on the left part of my head,” Jesse said, gesturing where he would get it.   
“Wow, that’s bold,” Kix said.  
“Yeah, but you know, I might not live that long, and if I don’t do it, I might regret it.”  
Kix shrugged. “I’m probably going to cut my hair, not shave like you two, but shorter than regulation.”  
“Everyone’s doing that though,” Hardcase said, “how about some patterns, make it more interesting?”  
“How about you do them then? It’s hard to touch those patterns up,” Kix argued, running his hand over his head for emphasis.  
“I’d do it,” Hardcase said simply.  
“I’ll bet you don’t last a week,” Jesse said laughing.  
“I’ll do patterns for however long you decide to shave them. Deal?” Kix said, extending his hand.  
“Deal,” Hardcase laughed, shaking it.  
They had to wait in the camp for one night before the gunships came to pick them up, and so Hardcase went into the tent with Jesse and his partner, because he didn’t actually know who he could sleep with, seeing as he’d spent his first night in the medics’ tent. Before he climbed in, he felt a tap on his shoulder.  
“Kav?”   
“Yeah, I saved you some room, I asked around, heard you were knocked out, and thanked Manda that you were still alive.”  
“Wait, the others. They didn’t make it?” Hardcase asked, finding that his voice sounded a lot smaller.  
“No, Dva found Rind and Vun’s CT numbers on a list of the dead. He was devastated; you know how much he liked Rind.”  
The world seemed to lose its reality to Hardcase; he’d known Vun for most of his life, and he’d shared his ambitions with him, and Vun had provided him a solid friend in his squad.   
Kav and Hardcase stood quietly before the two of them decided to go back to the tent.   
“Hey Dva, I found Hardcase,” Kav said.  
Dva grunted in their direction and then shifted in his sleeping bag.  
Kav shrugged and began to strip off his armor. Hardcase proceeded to do the same, uncomfortably trying to avoid stepping on or touching Kav and Dva. They went to sleep without much fanfare, but Hardcase’s night was fitful. All he could hear were Vun and Rind’s screams in his ear, and sometime during the night, he didn’t know when, he saw Ric’s face among his dead squad members.   
He woke up panting during the night, and thankfully saw Kav and Dva sound asleep. He groand quietly and resigned himself to a restless sleep before the wakeup call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about dubious medical techniques being used; I know it takes longer to recover from a concussion, but this is Star Wars, and I figure they'd have something that would help people recover more quickly, especially considering how many people get knocked over the head and are completely fine later.


	4. Chapter 4

He moved himself through the morning without much event. He’d made a few jokes around Kav and Dva that had fallen flat and he left them to themselves. In the interim, he grabbed some boxes and started hefting them into piles to be carried onto the gunships. He let himself get washed in how heavy the boxes were, how his muscles strained as he lifted one after the other until the clones were called to pick up the last of the battlefield debris. It was afternoon by the time they had finished, and Hardcase felt as though he’d never wanted a shower more.

He walked around the camp, wondering how often he’d be doing that, until he saw Slate and called him over. 

“Well, you’re still around,” Slate said in what Hardcase could swear was approval.

“I guess I can show you the bucket of blue paint now, you’ve done your battle, and judging by the blast marks on your armor, saw a decent bit of action too.”

Hardcase grinned, but then remembered something. “Listen, there’s some other guys I know, mind if I take them?” 

Before Slate could answer, Hardcase had started walking through the camp, and Slate rolled his eyes and followed.

As Hardcase predicted, Jesse and Kix were sitting on Jesse’s bed, deep in some sort of conversation.

“Hey, it’s Hardcase, and you’re gonna be able to recognize me in a little bit!” he hollered up, causing Jesse to jump. Kix laughed, Jesse said something in response and walked over.

“Slate here is going to show us where we can get our armor painted.”

“I said it to him and I’ll say it to you two, congrats on surviving, now you just have to repeat that magic trick another hundred times, and you may be alive when the war is over.”

“Thanks,” Kix said, rolling his eyes.

“You’re the medic, you’re supposed to be keeping us alive, so you’d better make it,” Slate said, grinning, “What’s your name?”  
“Kix, although I’ve learned that screaming ‘medic!’ works fine in a battle too.”

The other three all laughed heartily.

“Glad to see that if I forget your name, Kix, I’ll always have a fallback,” Jesse said.

“That’s only if you get injured, which I suspect is going to happen more to Hardcase than you.” 

Hardcase’s eyebrows shot up in mock offense, and he gasped loudly, “Me? Get injured?”

“Oh, sorry, I’ll bet that this was a one-time thing,” Kix said sarcastically. 

“By the way, Hardcase, I was going to tell you before you ran off to get these two here, the paint’s on the ship, we don’t take it into battle so we don’t lose it.”

“Oh,” Hardcase said, face flushing.

“Sorry about the inconvenience, Slate,” Jesse said, adopting a more professional demeanor.

Kix and Hardcase looked at each other and then back to Jesse, both taken aback.

Slate snorted.

“I’m the same rank as you, just older.”

Someone called Slate’s name in the distance and he nodded.

“Have fun until the next shit job we have to do,” he said, walking away to meet his friend. 

The others all awkwardly waved to him and then turned to one another.

“So, what do we do now?” Hardcase asked.

“Well, you can help me design the patterns that I’m apparently getting in my hair later.” Kix said, rolling his eyes.

“If someone’s got a razor, we can do it here,” Jesse suggested.

“One of the other medics said he had one and that I could use it, don’t know about you two. I have to get back to the tent later anyway, you can at least shave me before I need to start caring for the wounded again.”

“Challenge accepted,” Hardcase said, walking toward the medical tent. He heard either Jesse or Kix sigh as the two started following him. 

Kix ran ahead so Hardcase wouldn’t shout into the tent again.

“Hey, Clay, can I see the razor you said I could use?”

“Oh, Kix, sure. You still have forty-five minutes before your shift starts, good luck,” he said, rummaging through his backpack, “Have fun.”

They walked a distance away from the tent and Hardcase looked nervously at the razor. 

“Probably should have figured out how to use this thing first. Ah well, can’t be too hard,” he said, setting to work on a section of Kix’s hair.” 

Jesse watched in anticipation as Kix’s hair fell to the ground.

“It looks silly now, with one streak shorter.”

“Hope he doesn’t cut it unevenly,” Kix said nervously.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Hardcase reassured him, making a second pass with the razor. 

They continued like that for half an hour until Kix’s hair could barely be classified as three millimeters long.

“I don’t know about the pattern, my hand’s still kind of shaky. Can I practice on Jesse until you get out?”

“Whoa there, I don’t know if I trust you,” Jesse started, but Kix had already started back toward the medical tent.

“Sounds like an idea; I’ll hopefully be out before sunset,” he called, waving back at them.

“So, are you sure you can do Kix’s patterns, or are you just bullshitting it?” Jesse asked.

“Nah, I’m pretty alright with artsy stuff, whenever I had anything to make patterns with, I’d do it, and if I can get my hands on flimsi and something to draw with, I draw. I just don’t know what he wants me to shave, and I need to get this razor right or else I’ll screw up. I figure that if you’re going bald anyway, I can use you to practice on.”

Jesse sat down with a resigned sigh and Hardcase knelt behind him.

“So,” Hardcase said, starting on his head, “how are you going to do your armor?”

Jesse shrugged and Hardcase pulled the blade away.

“Sorry, I don’t know, haven’t given it much thought. Something different than the blue triangle though, that’s for sure. I want people to know it’s me.”

“I’ve been designing this line pattern since I’d first seen the armor, it’s gonna be really cool, look good with the tattoos too.”

Jesse laughed. “That’s nice.”

Hardcase set to work after that, swearing quietly as he messed up and practiced which way he had to hold the razor to get his patterns precise.

“Let’s show Kix,” he finally said as Jesse was about to fall asleep, “then I can shave you bald when he decides which one he wants.”

“Finally, I’m getting tired of just sitting here,” Jesse said, getting up and leading Hardcase to the tent. They waited for Kix to finish up with one of the patients and then tapped him on the shoulder.

“Really quickly, choose which one you want.” Hardcase said, pointing to Jesse’s head.

Kix chuckled and studied the patterns. 

“What were you thinking with the swirly one?”

“That was my second, give me a break.”

Kix looked at Jesse’s head, lightly tracing one of the patterns with his finger. Jesse flinched but started to relax. Hardcase was quickly feeling as though he was intruding on something private.

“What about this jagged one, which attempt was that?” Kix said, eliminating that feeling.

“My first.”

Jesse snorted.

“When are you free for him to shave your head?”

Kix stuck his head inside his helmet for a second. “About an hour. Can you two wait for that long and then dinner?”

Hardcase and Jesse nodded and then went outside. Jesse sat and stared at the setting sun, causing the clouds to turn a brilliant purple.

“It’s beautiful,” Jesse said with a quiet reverence as Hardcase began to shave the rest of his head. He made sure to get all the hairs off quickly as the light faded. 

“I guess this’ll be the best thing about being on all these planets, the view,” Jesse mused, chin resting on his hands. He was almost curled into a ball, and looked as though he was still deep in thought.

“Yeah, that’s at least one thing to look forward to,” Hardcase said, releasing a gentle sigh. “Hey, mind shaving my head now? I can hardly wait to get all this hair off,” he added, handing Jesse the razor.

“You know, if Kix doesn’t get the evening shift one day, we have to show him this, he probably doesn’t know what he’s missing,” Jesse said, taking it and starting on Hardcase’s head. His request was simpler, just bald, no frills. 

“Yeah, for sure,” Hardcase replied, feeling the air get cooler as he was shaved and the wind started blowing. He smiled at both changes; the afternoon had been humid. 

“I wonder if the other planets even have sunsets,” Hardcase said, looking as the stars began to show. He focused on committing the image to memory as Jesse finished shaving him, memorizing all the colors and shapes. He’d learned the trick a while back to keep himself quiet, forcing himself to see all the lines and colors which would translate to a drawing on a paper or a tattoo on skin. Even with the constantly changing sky, he began to tap his foot and run his hand across his armor to make sure that he was occupied. 

“Depends on if they have a sun, I guess,” Jesse said, shrugging.

“Never would have guessed,” Hardcase muttered.

“I’m done, and it’s time to get Kix anyway, our rations are getting more stale by the minute.” Jesse said, getting up and lending Hardcase a hand, which he took too enthusiastically and nearly pulled Jesse back down with him. 

They went to the tent, were told to wait for five minutes while he redressed someone’s wound, and then Kix sanitized his hands and went off to join them. 

“Come to the spot where we were before, there’s a great view,” Jesse said, pointing excitedly.

“I mean, I see stars, but I guess if that’s all I’m staring at while Hardcase cuts my hair by moonlight, I guess that’s comforting.”

“Nah,” Hardcase said, switching his night vision on, “I’ve got this,”

Hardcase set to carefully working at Kix’s hair, far less haphazardly than he’d shaved Jesse’s. Jesse had eaten his ration bars, and Kix had even begun carefully eating while Hardcase became engrossed in his work.  
“Did you really have to choose this one, Kix?” he asked, stuck at a particularly hard edge.

“Hey, you said that you’d do it. Not feeling up to it?” Kix goaded.

“Like hell I’m not,” Hardcase said and set back to work.

Kix winked at Jesse and grinned. 

Jesse began to go on about the stars, and Kix became enthralled with his words as Hardcase half-listened, half-worked, and eventually stood back with a triumphant cry.

“You are going to love me next time you look into a mirror.” 

“I’m still nervous that you did this by using night vision and moonlight,” Kix said, but ran his hand over his head, “Feels weird, lighter.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Hardcase said, mouth half-full.

“Aw, gross, learn to be polite, would you?” Jesse said, holding his hand out to block Hardcase’s face.

Hardcase shrugged and swallowed, “Sorry.”

They chatted as they ate, but Kix and Hardcase grew tired from the day’s activities. With apologies to Jesse, they went to their respective tents, and Hardcase stripped his armor off and crawled into his sleeping bag, feeling the exhaustion from clearing bodies and lifting crates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I had written before deciding to split it into chapters. There should be a few updates after this, and I apologize in advance for not having a schedule. Thanks for reading!


End file.
